


Adventures in Real Estate — Black Death Edition

by Idle_Hans



Series: Pocket Universities [9]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, world-building
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:20:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24869017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Idle_Hans/pseuds/Idle_Hans
Summary: Crisis is another word for opportunity.
Series: Pocket Universities [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1798099
Comments: 3
Kudos: 17





	Adventures in Real Estate — Black Death Edition

During the Black Death, up to half of Europe died. A lot of villages became so underpopulated they were unsustainable and were abandoned, and more than a few estates ended up being inherited by squibs because they were the last person standing.

Yes, squibs. Before people started getting silly about blood purity, no-one cast away a child just for being unable to use a wand. If you couldn't marry them off to one of your apprentices, you armed them with glamours and love potions, and dangled them in front of the most eligible muggles you could find. Then as now, well connected in-laws are usually a good thing to have.

Now there were two ways to catch the Black Death. Rats and fleas, or being coughed on. No wix in their right mind puts up with vermin anywhere near them. Weasley boys excepted, of course. Some of the oldest magics in existence are for keeping fleas and bed bugs away. And as for coughing, well, in mediæval times going out in public involved a lot of mud and muck. Laundry was a lot more difficult back then, even with magic. So again, it was common practise to use a minor shield to keep yourself from being spattered. And since the easiest way to have a low-key shield charm operating permanently is to wear an enchanted ring or pendant, your squib child may as well have one too. Anything keeping mud from splashing on you will shield you from coughs as well.

In that way, quite by accident, their chances of surviving the Black Death were as good as yours.

No, the muggle in-laws tended to remain vulnerable because while squibs can't _express_ magic, they do _have_ it, and can let charmed objects draw upon it. Muggle in-laws don't, and can't. So any enchanted objects you give to _them_ will be draining _your_ magic. You have to really like people to put up with that on a permanent basis.

No, you can't empower something wearable from ambient magic unless it's big, like the breastplate of a suit of armour. The runework required for ambient magic doesn't make for a small object.

Anyway, lots of dead muggles, half-abandoned villages, squibs inheriting estates, and muggle landowners selling land in large amounts for the first time in history. People saw opportunities, and chunks of real estate started disappearing behind concealment wards all over the countryside.


End file.
